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Kerala Blasters FC knocked the wind out of Chennaiyin FC’s sails with an emphatic 3-0 win in Kochi to bring the visitors crashing back to reality after they topped the Hero Indian Super League table in the league stage. They had even beaten Kerala, home and away, but were in for a rude shock when they took to the pitch at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in front of a capacity crowd of over 60,000.
Chennaiyin recalled top scorer Elano Blumer into the squad after the top-scorer had permission to go back to Brazil to recuperate from an injury. Coach Marco Materazzi moved him just behind his two attackers - Jeje Lalpekhlua and Balwant Singh – aided by Eric Djemba-Djemba and Denson Devadas on the flanks. Materazzi knew Elano had fitness issues and therefore offered to field him in a playmaker’s role, rather than putting his deadly weapon right at the top.
Unfortunately for him and his team, in a 52-minute cameo, Elano had two free-kicks but couldn’t do anything of note with them and had just a sole shot on target. His misery was brought to an end by Materazzi, replacing him with another Brazilian attacking midfielder in Bruno Pelissari. Pelissari scored one of the goals of the tournament in Chennaiyin’s last league match against Delhi Dynamos FC – off a corner over the towering goalkeeper Kristof van Hout - but couldn’t infuse life in the tie against Kerala.
The downfall of Chennaiyin can be attributed to a lot of reasons, but one man made all the difference in halting the Brazilians. Mehtab Hossain halted Elano’s charge at goal by shadowing him through the game, even cutting out the clever through balls. He continued the same once Pelissari came on, making the switch almost redundant with his defensive skills.
Given Elano’s injury concerns, it could be better to start with the younger and more dynamic Pelissari in the semi-final second leg. However, knowing they have to score at least three goals, a gamble on Elano given his experience would be a fair call as well.
